More deaths in China as bird flu fears grow

Experts are concerned about possible human-to-human transmission of the new H7N9 bird flu virus

Reuters: Aly Song

Authorities in China say the death toll from a new strain of bird flu has reached 20, with the deaths of two more people.

The H7N9 virus has been detected in 102 people, mostly in eastern China. Seventy of those infected remain in hospital, while 12 have been discharged.

However, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says 40 per cent of patients with H7N9 had not come into contact with poultry, raising questions about how people are becoming infected.

It also emerged that the virus had spread among family members in Shanghai, raising fears that it was passing between humans.

But the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said there is "no evidence of ongoing human-to-human transmission".

WHO representative Michael O'Leary said investigators were trying to determine whether there had been human-to-human transmission between family members.

"The primary focus of the investigation is to determine whether this is in fact spreading at a lower level among humans. But there is no evidence for that so far except in these very rare instances," he said.

A team of international health experts is on a week-long mission in Beijing and Shanghai to investigate the virus, for which no vaccine currently exists.

Taiwan said on Sunday it had received H7N9 specimens from China as the island battles to avoid the epidemic.

"The virus could be used in producing vaccines and diagnosis," said Liu Shih-hao of the Centres for Disease Control in Taiwan.

Since China announced nearly three weeks ago that it had found the strain in people for the first time, almost all of the cases have occurred in Shanghai and four nearby provinces, while one appeared in Beijing.

Experts fear the prospect of such viruses mutating into a form easily transmissible between humans, which would then have the potential to trigger a pandemic.